I guess the builder didn’t really want to sell it. I don’t want to sell a lot of things, but for 5k take it. LOL. I never asked for anything over 800 for my nicest box with marquetry and the whole nine yards. After advertising it to death and the price getting down to 450, it still never sold. If he sells this box I definitely want his secret. For now I’ll offer him 50 bucks, otherwise I’ll make one….....possibly better. LOL

i wonder if it is a miss print….even if it was meant to be 500…that is kinda high for that project…yea if he were to get it..i would be amazed…...besides…i can get keith to make me one for 450…right…...lol…...

Pricing is always an interesting issue. The biggest issue for people to overcome when selling is the mistake of selling out of your own pocket. I know what I’d be willing to spend for a box (if I didn’t make it) and so any box over that amount I’ll probably never see the value in. But just because I wouldn’t spend that much doesn’t mean someone else won’t.

Buyers can and do make emotional decisions to purchase every day. We tend to see price in terms of materials/labor/markup. Your customer may see it in terms of the wood/design/features/details. Other customers may only make a decision on how pretty something is. Don’t believe me? Why do paintings have wildly different values? Can’t just be time and materials…

Would you spend $200k for a car? Not me but people do all the time. A milion for a house? Not me ever, but people do every day.

Even my customers buy for different reasons and many pay big premiums for things you would scoff at. You just have to know your customer. And even more important, you always need to be looking for the customers who are willing to pay a premium for what you do. Do you think Nakashima and Maloof saw the world a little differently?

Just remember that every day someone’s buying. If price was the only thing that made a difference they would all buy at walmart and we could just go fishing.

this box isn’t worth 5000 bucks…i don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out…i checked this post…he also wants 100 buck for shipping…...that another rip….i just mailed a custom jewelry box that was weight wise probably double his box…and it was 40 bucks…and that included insurance…..bit it comes to this…its his asking price and there me be someone who will pay that…..is it really worth that…...ive read the post and all that hes done…nothing more then what i and many other woodworkers do with our boxes…..so it doesn’t matter…..if he gets it…someone spent a lot of money for a box they could have had a number of skilled wood workers here at this site make him for much less.

without pointing fingers , a previous post metioned the details and he would prob get the asking price…i can see from the projects hes posted over the last 500 some days quilify him to know of this projects worth…..i dont think so…but hey..its just a box and this mess doesnt really matter…..if this guy gets 5000 bucks…..then that says somewhere is this messed up economy is someone who can affort to spend a lot of money on something not worth it..that is why were in this mess…inflated prices…..paying to high a price for something not worth it…....a house that is really worth 120,000 selling for double or triple that…...

I went to his website too. He does really nice work overall, but looking at this 3000.00 box, he should clean up the pencil marks and on his commissioning page, he shouldn’t show finish already applied over a bunch of pencil marks, plus the end grain of the board on the commissioning page is all “faceted” in some odd shape, apparently rounded over very quickly. Once again, looks good, more power to him if he can get that price, but he is outright lying to his customers about the time involved because he doesn’t take any time on details, more like measure it, cut it, glue it, finish it. I would just hate for people to get turned away from buying handmade because they think this is the price they have to pay for something that is not top quality.

Holy smokes! I have to quit hanging my head about asking $300.As to the scribed line on the doves – some guys think it’s a way to reference the fact that it emphasizes the handcut nature of their work, so I can’t fault that as just mere laziness. But Mr. Five-Grand – good luck with that…

i came across another custom piece on esty….it was a nice dresser, but right above the top drawer on the left and right were two plugs…weather they were for screws i don’t know…but they were END GRAIN PLUGS…very easy to see and no mistaken about it…he was asking 3000.00 for this piece which prob wasn’t out of the range to much…but i wrote to him and mentioned that if he was going to make custom pieces and at 3000 bucks..he shouldn’t be using end grain plugs…its the small details that show the professionalism of a piece..and to me makes a statement of the overall quaility…..he wrote me back and told me i wasn’t seeing what i thought i was…...im sorry but i had to laugh at that….ive been doing this long enough to know details like that….at first i didn’t respond…it just wasn’t worth the time…but being me…..i had to write him back and tell him..i know what I’m looking at….those are end grain plugs…and i encouraged him to take council from others who do know what there doing…..believe me i know I’m no maloof…but i do know enough…maybe he will take notice..maybe not…but it all goes back to wanting the woodworking trade to be represented by honest folks…there are levels of quaility…and the small details show at what level your dealing with…to me…a piece selling for 3000.00 should not have end grain plugs…..thats just the way i am….so it comes down to places like e bay and esty give place for craftsman to sell there wares…i just hope that those who sell items at a lower level don’t impact the wood workers who work at a higher level…they deserve a higher dollar amount for higher quaility…...these fly by night – appearing out of the wood work in the middle of the night guys might mare those who have put years in to show it does make a diffrence…there is a difference in Joe blows work and hard working wood workers who have earned the right to ask for higher prices…

All this talk has gotten me excited I’m going to list my $ 28,000 saw horses with gold paint and sequins as soon as I get it built but I will offer a discount for a pair only $ 55,000. Please tell your rich crazy friends.How about you guys what’s on your list. We can start our own version of Hammacher Schlemmer.